Gambling related articles

The state of the Online Casino in Sweden

From Fredrik Thomson.
December 2016.

In Sweden the government has a piece in every gambling
operator that operates within the country. The Lotteries
Act (1994) Lotterilagen and The Casinos Act (1999)
Kasinolag ensures that all gambling remains under
the control of the Swedish state and its agencies.
This means that currently there's a gambling monopoly
in Sweden. And the market is strictly regulated. It
doesn't matter how qualified or how big of a company
you are. Gambling companies will not get licensed
if the government isn't involved in the business.

The licensing gambling body in Sweden is called Lotteriinspektionen
which is another agency controlled by the government.
Over at www.lotteriinspektionen.se in the about us
section they write,

"The Swedish Gambling Authority is the authority
which has been given the task of ensuring the legality,
safety and reliability of the Swedish gaming and gambling
market."

It would be illegal for Lotteriinspektionen to license
a foreign online casino. So the idea to establish
a casino business within Sweden is a very far-fetched
idea.

Svenska Spel doesn't offer online casino

Svenska Spel is by far the biggest gambling operator
in Sweden and it's 100 % owned by the government.
But the odd thing about Svenska Spel is that they
do not offer online casino. They have not permission
to do so. Svenska Spel AB, the company that runs Svenska
Spel, formed an application to start an online casino
a few years ago but it's still being handled.

In order to play online casino in Sweden customers
have to play on other sites. Like the ones presented
on vasacasino.se
for example. Even though it's illegal for online casino
operators to run their business from Sweden, they
can still offer their services to swedes as long as
they are based in another country. And it's perfectly
legal for a consumer to play on online casinos that
operate from foreign countries.

A lot of issues with the monopoly One issue with
the gambling monopoly in Sweden is that it's very
ineffective. Since it's not stopping anyone from gambling
on another site it makes little sense to keep it.
Also, the critique regarding the gambling monopoly
from the EU is getting louder. Many argue that Sweden
is reluctant to let go of the monopoly because it
is making the government so much money.